A streetside glimpse of India from Bangalore - no paid news, no lobbying, no plants, no stringing along - just pure viewpoints. My own political education. Satire Alert (At times)!
Because, nothing is permanent, only interim!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Close on the heels of noticing Bengali DVDs being sold in Bengaluru (delicious irony) I also noticed Vishwakarma Pooja being celebrated at many construction sites. (Afaik, Vishwakarma Puja is not so much of a local celebration - correct me if I am wrong.) Is it possible that some of our construction boom is also fuelled by migrants (of either legality) from the eastern neighbour?

After returning from the 28th India-Bangladesh Border Coordination Conference in Dhaka, the BSF chief A K Mitra disclosed that nearly 12 lakh Bangladeshis who had entered India on valid papers have disappeared between 1972 to 2005...This is one of the few official figures about the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants whose number has been estimated to be around 20 million and growing by the day.

12 lakh is about the size of the IT workforce all over India - if that gives you an idea of the magnitude of the issue.